content strategy: part one - developing a content marketing plan

Developing a Content Strategy

The challenge and the process

What is content marketing

Content marketing : A strategic marketing approach Focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content Designed to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience Ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

Why focus on content?

3

57%

of purchase decisions made before a customer talks to a supplier

CEB Inc., 2015

85%

By 2020, customers will manage

of their relationship with an enterprise without interacting with a human.

Gartner, 2015

Do Less, Not More

Less content is easier to manage Less content is more user friendly Less content cost less to create

Content is everywhere

Figure out what you have Quantitative inventory Qualitative assessment

Listen to your customers, employees and competitors

Content Team

Manager Editor Social media specialist Graphic designer Web developer Analyst Writer SEO specialist

Most content managers are a Jack of All Trades

One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine

17%

10%12%

10%

13%

9%

13%

9%7%

How many different roles do you fill on the content team?

2016 Rundown Study

But who owns the content?

Content Team Structure

Content Team

Part of Other Deparment

In-House Agency

Outsourced

Newsroom - Cross Funcitonal Team

Channel Team

36%

21%

20%

12%

8%

4%

How is the content team organized

2016 Rundown Study

All Content is not Equal

Syndicated content typically lower quality with little SEO value High volume of content hard to keep updated and organized User generated content can be inconsistent Outsourced writers - good ones are expensive, cheap ones are bad

Without a plan there is chaos

Pieces of a content plan Site map Content schedule Distribution strategy

It is harder than it looks

Plan the elements – How will we do this? Inventory Page templates Source material SEO guidelines Software

The content plan is not the strategy

Balancing stakeholders

Business Marketing / Sales Advertising User Experience Information Technology

What is Content Strategy

Defines business goals Guides decisions Sets benchmarks Addresses people and process issues

Putting the pieces together

Substance

Topics – Brand messages, key selling points Types - Blog, infographic, video, photograph, podcast … Sources – Where will content come from

Structure

Priority SEO and meta data Linking strategies Distribution

Governance

Review process Compliance – particularly in regulated industries Social media policy

Workflow

Publishing tools File sharing / storage Website CMS Email Marketing Project management platform Social media management tool Web analytics tool Automation Social listening Marketing cloud

Popular content tools

Storage / File Sharing

Dropbox – Most popular today Google Drive – Close second Box

Website CMS

Wordpress – most popular Drupal SharePoint Ektron

Email Marketing

Mail Chimp most popular price and simplicity Constant Contact more robust product Emma Delivera is an Indy based company

Project Management

Basecamp – most popular, well established Trello Workamajig Poidio Slack – new product gaining ground as social tool as well Teamwork Projects Asana Insightly

Social Media Management

Hootsuite – Most widely used Spredfast Sprinklr Adobe Social Sprout Social Tweet Deck Buffer

Web Analytics

Google Analytics Wordpress Stats Adobe Analytics

Automation

HubSpot Marketo Eloqua Infusionsoft Pardot Right On Interactive Constant Contact

Social Listening

Sysomos Infegy Crimson Hexagon NetBase

Marketing Cloud

Salesforce Adobe Cloud Oracle