How to Plan and Build a

Successful Content
Marketing Strategy
chael Brenner
wsCred - Head of Strategy
rennerMichael
#thinkcontent

Agenda

The key factors for content marketing success

The core components of a content marketing strategy

How to utilize content across the buyer journey

How to work with NewsCred to document your strategy

and achieve success

#thinkcontent

Content Marketing
Success

Utilizing Content Across

the Buyer Journey

Building a Successful
Content Strategy

Working with NewsCred:

Crafting a Successful
Content Strategy

Every single day

4.75 billion

Theres been a fundamental

shift in the way we create,
consume, and share content.

1.8 billion

piece of content are shared

photos are uploaded and shared

500 million

tweets are posted

700 million

snapchats are sent

#thinkcontent


Marketing used to be about making a
myth and telling it. Now its about
telling a truth and sharing it.

- MARC MATHIEU Unilever

#thinkcont nt
e

I have no patience for useless


The buyer journey is nothing more

than a series of questions that must

be answered.

- IDC -

#thinkcont nt
e

Online Communities
Search Engines
eBooks
Email Newsletters
Editorial Articles
White Papers
Podcasts
Case Studies
Online Videos
Webcasts
Virtual Trade Shows
Product Literature
Trial Software
Online Vendor Demos

Awareness

Begin
decision
process

Align IT with
business
objectives

Consideration
Explore
technology
options

Preference

Determine
solution
strategy

Assess ROI

Identify
business
problem

Establish
requirements/
build RFP

Research
products/
vendors
Research
solutions

Build
short
list

Make
decision

Content Marketing Defined

Content marketing is the marketing and business process for creating and distribu
relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and
understood target audience - with the objective of driving profitable customer actio
-Content Marketing Institute

Not Advertising or PR

It is Customer, Not brand-focused

Seeks to answer customer questions across the buyer journey

Owned media

#thinkcontent

Behind every tweet, share,

and purchase is a person,
like you and me.

#thinkcontent

Put Your Customers Needs First.

Make them the hero.

Brand
Purpose

Content
Marketing

What
Customers
Want

Our Natural Instinct

Charity

#thinkcontent


We need to stop interrupting what

people are interested in and be wha

people are interested in.

- CRAIG DAVIS -

#thinkcontent

Unique Point of View Trap

Too easy to become consumed
with your story, not your customers.

#thinkcontent

Six key factors to content marketing success:

1

Document content strategy

Have someone in charge of content

Consistently publish quality content

Map content to buyer journey

Balance Paid, Owned, Earned Media

Track Content Marketing ROI

#thinkcontent

Content Marketing
Success

Utilizing Content Across

the Buyer Journey

Building a Successful
Content Strategy

Working with NewsCred:

Crafting a Successful
Content Strategy

What is a Content Strategy?

Delivering content your audience wants

Managing content as an asset (with an ROI)

Thinking and acting like a publisher

#thinkcontent

Why is it important to have a documented

content strategy?

3 Steps to Building a Content Strategy

1
2
3

Why?
Whats the Business Case?

How?
Team, actions, and budgets needed.

What?
Show results tied to your business objectives.
#thinkcontent

Content Marketing Roadmap

Budget
Destination
Frequency
Amplification / Optimization
Collaboration (Who does what)

Discovery

Destination

Team

Customer
Journey

Topic Models

KPIs /
Reporting

Optimization

Business Case

Branding/Design

Who does what?

Structure

Content by Stage

Define report

Content

Current State

Platform

Agency

Topics

Conversions

Who / when?

Platform

Budget

Firm Integration

NewsCred

Types

Subscriptions

Distribution

Distribution

#thinkcontent

Content marketing m
Become a destination for [target aud
interested in [topics]. To help the
[customer value].

This will help us [content marketing

Earn your audiences attention vs
buying it
Reach, engage and convert NEW
AmEx Open Forum Example: Help S
Businesses Do More Business. To b
the largest source of inbound leads.

#thinkcontent

Commit To Measuring Your Results

Awareness / Reputation:
Classic Brand / PR objectives. SOV, SOC, and press mentions. With Whom? On What Topic?
Measured by?
Reach:
Who is the target Audience? What are their online interests? How can we measure?
Engagement:
Drive deeper relationship with the brand. Measured by time spent, bounce rate, social shares
Convert:
Subscribers, Leads, Sales

#thinkcontent

Define Content Marketing Roles and Functions

Content
Marketer /
Editor
Strategizes, writes,
and oversees
content projects to
ensure brand
consistency and
alignment with

Community
Manager
Distributes content
across social
channels, engages
online communities,
and contributes to
content projects.

Analytics

Designer

Defines best/ worst

Brings content to life

through the user
experience and rich
visuals.

performers,
conversion
optimization and
measurement

Curation
Fines and repurposes the best
content from your
business and from
around the web.

Contributors

SEO / Paid
Specialist

Any content creatorblogger,

Manages the paid
photographer,
distribution of
designer who content
online.
contributes to your
project.

communications.

business
objectives.

#thinkcontent

Define The Business Case, Workflows,

Gain Organizational Buy-in

Make sure all stakeholders understand your mission statement and business goals
Determine who needs to sign off on content
Set approval processes for publishing and sharing content in order to cut down on
back-and-forth
Leverage technology to automate that entire process is a great way to get ahead

Consider Your Destination and Branding

#thinkcontent

Content Marketing
Success

Utilizing Content Across

the Buyer Journey

Building a Successful
Content Strategy

Working with NewsCred:

Crafting a Successful
Content Strategy

Conduct A Content Audit

A Content Audit will help you:

Give you a true sense of scale
Identify gaps
Seize opportunities for content repurposing
Determine performance issues
Evaluate content quality
Improve your information architecture

Look at Content by Buyer Stage

Early-Stage Content
6%

Late-Stage
Content

66%

28%

Middle-Stage
Content

Early Stage
Middle Stage
Late Stage
#thinkcontent

Where in the journey do we want to connect?

Online Influences

Reviews
Comments
Blogs
Forums

Discover

Consider

Decide

Why buy?

Why buy now?

Why buy from you?

Educate
Search

What
When
Who

Trust
Capability
Capacity

#thinkcontent

Defining Topics

What are we going to talk about?

[Sample at left - SAP The Customer
Edge blog keyword analysis]

#thinkcontent

Content across the buyer journey

Awareness

Top of the Funnel

Quality, licensed content around broader, shareable topics that drives visibility
and engagement

Evaluation

Purchase

Retain

Middle of the Funnel

A combination of licensed and custom content thats not only useful and timely,
but also hits on niche topics specific to your offering and solutions. Potentially gated.

Bottom of the Funnel

Custom content promoting your products and services: case studies, product
offers, customized demos, etc.

Customer Stage
Consistent cadence of TOFU/MOFU content as well as personalized
recommendations, service options, case studies, etc.

#thinkcontent

Show me the money!

Utilize The Right Mix of Content

Custom Content
Share on-brand stories and recipes which are created
specifically for your brand.

Licensed Content
Boost credibility, publishing cadence, and direct traffic
with a high-volume of fully-licensed, compliant content.

Social Content
Leverage snackable content through UGC that
engages your target audience.
#thinkcontent

Distributing your content

Even great content needs a push!

Average Hollywood movie splits 40-50%

production with 50-60% distribution
#thinkcontent

Maximizing the Reach of Your Content

We believe in a converged media approach utilizing paid, owned, and earned media
to deliver content the audience wants and maximizing the reach of that content.

Paid Social Influencer/

movable media

Maximize organic buzz,

social engagement,
and PR

Earned

Paid

Quickly grow your

audience & jumpstart
engagement

Converged

Organic Traffic & SEO

Owned

Native Ads (Nativo)

Paid Content Distribution
(Outbrain, Sharethrough)

Leverage your owned

content and channels

#thinkcontent

Distribution Recommendations

Make sure your social accounts demonstrate interaction

4-1-1 Rule: 4 of your posts, 1 influencer post, 1 publisher post
Follow and mention influencers, publishers in each topic
Help your authors build social presence
Test paid distribution with LinkedIn and Outbrain
Measure engaged visitors from paid vs. organic visitors

Based on time on site or pages per visit

Client

Influencer

Publisher

#thinkcontent

Blog Benchmarks

Bounce Rate

Pages Per Visit

85%

1.3 Average

Time Spent
On Site

Uniques Per
Month

46 Seconds

346,400

#thinkcontent

Define Key Measures and Targets

#thinkcontent

Organic and Social: Up and To The Right

35,000

Traffic from Organic, Social & Referrals

30,000
25,000
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0

#thinkcontent

Content Marketing
Success

Utilizing Content Across

the Buyer Journey

Building a Successful
Content Strategy

Working with NewsCred:

Crafting a Successful
Content Strategy

No matter where you are in your journey,

NewsCred can help.
Our team of strategists can help you:

Document your content strategy

Build Business case / Define ROI
Content Audits
Buyer journeys
Content Mix
Build / Source Content Team
Distribution strategy
Provide metrics and ROI guidance

#thinkcontent

Were helping some of the worlds

largest brands with their strategy:

#thinkcontent

Ways to work with our Strategy Team

1

Ongoing Strategy Engagements

2

One-Day Strategy Workshop

Multiple Strategy Sessions

Strategy Health check

Custom engagements

#thinkcontent

Sample content strategy

exercises well help you with

#thinkcontent

Brand Map Framework

Audience
The content that you publish largely depends on your target audience - their interests, behaviors and motivations. This demographic plays a key role in your content creation and distribution process. The
publications you license content from, the topics you write about and the distribution channels that you use.
What is your target demographic?

What kind of publications does your audience

read?

What social channels does your audience

frequently engage on?

What events does your audience care about?

Brand Strategy
Understanding your brand's identity is key to understanding the type of content that your brand should source and create. Content marketing should always convey your unique brand personality
consistently, from the photos that you publish to the blog posts that you create.
What is your brands ambition or purpose?

What is your brand voice?

What are the design principles of your brands

visual identity?

What owned assets (color, typeface, etc.) signal

your brand?

Content Strategy
Our mission is to help brands simplify and scale their entire content marketing process: content planning, discovery, creation, publishing, distribution and measurement. Understanding your current process
and challenges as well as your future goals will help us shape a content marketing strategy unique to your brand, resources, internal creative/compliance processes.
Who is the organization responsible
for your content strategy?

What does your current content

workflow look like?

Do you currently use a mix of content

types (original, licensed, social, etc.)?

What do you like about your content

marketing strategy and what do you
want to change?

What are your content pillars?

What are your SEO keyword

priorities? What longtail keywords are
you interested in?

What type of content do you want to

feature?

What products or services (if any) do

you want us to keep in mind?

Are there specific geographic

regions or cities we should keep in
mind?

Which social channels would you like

to prioritize? What is your ideal
content cadence?

Distribution Strategy
Distribution is just as important as the content itself. It is important to understand which channels will reach your target audience and how you should share content across each channel.
What channels do you use for organic distribution?

What channels do you use for paid distribution?

What demand generation programs do you use?

Persona

Stage

Questions/Concerns

Keywords

Xyz

Early

Xyz

Xyz

Middle

Xyz

Xyz

Late

Xyz

Xyz

Persona

Stage

Questions/Concerns

Keywords

Xyz

Early

Xyz

Xyz

Middle

Xyz

Xyz

Late

Xyz

Xyz

#thinkcontent

SUCCESS METRICS
MEDIA METRICS

What do we measure?

KPIS: BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

ROI: MEDIA PERFORMANCE

Is our content producing the desired result?

How efficiently is our content and distribution working to

produce the desired result?

CONTENT PERFORMANCE
Impressions
Social shares
Time spent
Return visits

Is our content being seen?

Are people engaging with our brand & content?
How much time are people spending with our brand and
are they returning?

What is our cost/value per exposure, action or view?

AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT
Subscriber / audience size
Share of voice
Audience penetration across org

How large is our audience?

Whats our share of voice in a market/ channel?
Is engagement growing across the workflow chain of a
single organization?

What is the cost/value per point of share?

What is the cost/value per active audience member?

What is the cost/ value per point of lift?

BRAND AWARENESS

Brand lift
Perception / attitudinal change

Are we creating awareness? Is our message memorable?

Are we changing perceptions?

LEAD GENERATION AND SALES

Behavioral conversions
Lead generation
Sales lift

Are people discovering and understanding our product &

service offering?
Are we driving quality leads?

What is the cost per qualified lead?

What is the multi-touch attribution cost?
What is the cost per sale?

Are we driving overall sales?

How To Implement A Successful

Content Marketing Strategy
Key Takeaways:
Commit to publishing content that your customers actually want

Figure out what questions your customers ask (Google) what content
they share (Social) and what channels they use.
3

Start publishing content

Distribute the winners

Measure what works

#thinkcontent

Thank you!
Learn more about our strategy services:
http://newscred.com/learn-professional-services
Enter our raffle for a free
Content Strategy Workshop:
http://newscred.com/content-strategy-workshop-raffle

michael.brenner@newscred.com
sales@newscred.com
#thinkcontent | @newscred