what is content marketing and should i do it myself?

DIGITAL MARKETING SERVICES Peppersack Limited, Atlantic Business Centre, Atlantic Street, Altrincham, WA14 5NQ

Tel: 0161 926 3670 Email: [email protected] Web: www.peppersack.com

What is content marketing and should I do it myself?

Author, PostSckrippt

January, 2015

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Written under commission for Peppersack

Edited by Chris Tomlinson

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www.peppersack.com

Copyright 2014 Peppersack. All rights reserved.

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.peppersack.com/




Synopsis

This paper provides an insight to content marketing and its many varied forms. Reading the

paper will impress upon someone new to this area that content marketing; is an important tool that

can be used to gain position on search engines, that potential clients expect free information to

enable them to begin developing a relationship with a vendor, is something that everyone should do

and with a little time and practice, can do. The paper is not technical and does not delve deep into

particular techniques; rather it shows what can be done and what could be considered as valid

content. Business managers wishing to develop in this field will need to do further research.





What is content marketing and should I do it myself?

Content Marketing Defined: More Than Just a Pretty Face

An attractive man (or woman) walks across the room and catches your eye. You walk

up and begin to make conversation. Looking into his eyes, you envision going on your first

date together, and the possibilities of the relationship developing further. You look up at

this wonderfully attractive, well-groomed person and begin to think of the possibilities,

what would your future children look like? Your future partner then opens his mouth and

tells you about how he spent the whole of the past weekend drinking beer while watching

the shopping channel.

Let me just wait here while you oh-so-subtly try to slip out of the room.

“Attractive” may catch your attention, but substance makes you stay.

The beauty of content marketing is that it takes on a pretty face and, adds in the

brains.

The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) defines content marketing as “a marketing

technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract





and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer

action”.

Put simply, content marketing is the ability tosell without actually selling.

Content marketing is the ongoing curation and utilization of useful and relatable

information that changes or enhances the way consumers decide and inevitably act. Instead

of outright selling a product to a client, content marketing sees an enterprise providing

readers with valuable information so that they become more informed and intelligent; and

in turn, these consumers reward the enterprise’s consistent and valuable content with their

loyalty and business.

Unlike intrusive ads that interrupt what you are doing, content marketing drives

consumers to buy not because you tell them that they should, but because you give them

the ability and freedom to decide to.

So how significant is content marketing? Very.Extremely.Downright necessary if you

want your enterprise to succeed. The best thing is that if you can write, with the application

of structure and a little discipline, you can become a content marketer. If you do not have





the time to produce your own content, of course you can hire professionals. The important

thing is to understand how it is done so you can begin to participate in the process.

The significance of content marketing is that effective marketing simply can’t exist

without valuable and relevant content. If the information being put out there doesn’t

coincide with the decision-making and action you want to encourage in your consumers,

your marketing strategies won’t work.

Content marketing gone awry is ignored, while content marketing done right makes

people pause, think, come to a realization and act differently.

The Age Divide: Content Marketing and Traditional Marketing

While older generations tended to speak “at” instead of speak “with” their kids,

younger parents who have consumed all the self-help parenting literature they could have

learned to allow their children to get in on the conversation.

Much like grandpa who told you that during his time, rowdy kids got a spanking,

traditional marketing tells you that you should buy a product. If you listened you bought,

and the effectivity of the pitch being determined by sales – much like how the effectivity of

a spanking is determined by how still a child keeps afterwards.





Enterprises that employ content marketing, on the other hand, want to hear what

consumers have to say. It’s a conversation they want consumers to partake in because they

want to have a relationship with them. So much like how an older parent used to spanka

naughty child, a younger parent chooses to talk it out, and inform the child why he shouldn’t

be engaging in such raucous behavior.

While traditional “product-centric” marketing has proven to be effective in the past,

people are now responding more to content “consumer-centric” marketing.

Traditional marketing sees companies spending millions to produce ad campaigns in

order to buy exposure on television, print and radio – platforms that these companies don’t

own. On the other hand, content marketing is about owning media at a lesser cost, and not

performing on someone else’s stage.

Content Marketing Benefits

Aside from profitability, businesses can greatly benefit from content marketing in the

following ways:

Content marketing can be employed by any business and industry.





o From automobiles to fashion to food, there will always be information being

sought, and content ready to be written.

Content marketing generates more traffic to your website.

o Consumers look for content that is valuable and relatable to them. The more

content you produce that is highly targeted to a certain audience, the more

likely you will generate more inbound traffic to your website.

Content marketing creates a dynamic relationship between yourself and your

clients.

o Creating content that caters to a specific niche will enable engagement

between your client and yourself. Feedback from consumers will help you

determine the most relevant and sought-after information, as well as inform

you of the textual and visual format your consumers may prefer.

Content marketing generates more leads.

o Compared to traditional marketing, content marketing is also proving to be

more profitable. The study “Content Marketing ROI” cited that content

marketing has earned more per dollar than its traditional counterpart,

producing three times more leads.





Content marketing generates more sales.

o According to the Custom Content Council, around 55 percent of readers

stated that they are more likely to buy products or employ services from a

website that is content-rich since they are able to fully understand the

benefits they are to gain from the content that is posted.

Content marketing allows for easier distribution of work and outsourcing.

o With business owners believing more in the effectively of content marketing,

more of them have leaned towards outsourcing work, since tasks are more

easily distributed amongst in-house staff and freelancers. While 55 percent of

content marketers outsourced in 2013, 62 percent used a mix of insourced

and outsourced content in 2014.

Content marketing builds your brand and makes you a thought leader.

o Being able to provide highly relevant and high quality content builds your

enterprise’s image, and makes you an authority on the industry and product

or service you are offering. As a thought leader, people will more likely listen

and follow what you have to say. According to the LeadersWest Digital





Marketing Journal, businesses with reputable images are able to influence

the purchasing decisions of around 52 percent of avid blog readers.

Content marketing makes you more human.

o While traditional advertorials can feature new slogans and catchy tunes,

content marketing shows your human side because it makes you much more

accessible to your audience and potential customers.

Content marketing levels the playing field.

o Big fish, small fry, small pond, big ocean. Content marketing works for any

enterprise scale – whether it be a whale or a guppy.

Surprisingly, the 2014 CMI B2B Content Marketing report has cited that small businesses

that have employed content marketing are thriving, and are enjoying a competitive edge

over bigger brands and groups.

In 2013, 34 percent of B2B small business marketers stated that they have become

more successful by employing content marketing strategies. In 2014, the figure grew

to 45 percent.





B2B small-scale entrepreneurs are more likely to have their content marketing

strategy documented as compared to their peers and competitors regardless of size.

B2B small business marketers are using social media more in 2014 compared to the

previous year. Large increases are evident in Google+ (40 percent to 61 percent),

SlideShare (24 percent to 40 percent), Instagram (9 percent to 23 percent), and

YouTube (62 percent to 75 percent).

Begin with the Basics

So, how to begin?

Before tapping away at your laptop to write your very first post, consider the two

essential things you need before coming up with a content marketing strategy – your goals,

and your mission statement.

Content is not created for content’s sake. Content may be king, but if a king has no

plansfor his kingdom thenhis people would be without clear direction or instruction.





Your goals.

Create content based on what your business goals are. Whether these goals

are raising brand awareness, turning readers into customers and customers into

evangelists, or even encouraging consumers to buy more, content should revolve

around what you want to happen.

Your mission statement.

While your goals ask questions about what you want to happen, your mission

statement is about your enterprise’s reason for existing. The three vital parts of your

mission include stating who your specific target core audience is, what you want to deliver

to your audience, and what your audience will be able to do once your content has been

consumed.

The rules for content marketing aren’t written in stone, but there are some questions

you can ask yourself while strategizing, such as:

How much financial resourceshould be allotted for content marketing?

Will the content be insourced, outsourced or a mix of both?

Who is the target audience?





What tone/style should my content be? Will I take on a formal or conversational

tone?

Where will the content be published; company site, forums, social media or offline?

Will I rely heavily on text, images and/or videos?

Who is my competition?

What is the word count for each item?

How many posts will I write per week and on which days will I publish new content?

What is your Return-on-Marketing-Investment (ROMI), or the degree in which your

marketing strategies contribute to your profits?

The Customer’s Journey

As previously mentioned, content marketing is consumer-centric rather than

product-centric. According to the CMI, information empowers consumers to pause, think,

decide and then consequently act.

With content marketing allowing for consumers and enterprises to have more dynamic

relationships, businesses are actively seeking to be part of the customer’s journey from

discovery to consideration to decision.





Discovery.

The reader discovers your content and investigates what the content contains. Not

only does a commitment to change start forming at this stage, there is also a loosening of

the status quo.

Consideration.

This is the stage whereby the empowered reader begins to consider making a

decision. He or she looks for solutions, and justifies the decision he or she is about to make.

Decision.

The decision stage is a choice between remaining a reader or becoming a customer.

If the decision is made to remain a reader, then additional content will be sort until the

reader has gathered enough information to answer questions such as product suitability,

cost and value.

With many consumers discovering products or services through social media or

online searches, businesses often become the consumer’s information source and

purchasing companion. The challenge is to ensure that the customer finds your company’s

content and not one of the thousands of offerings presented by other companies.





Once discovery occurs content helps the reader evolve into a consumer through relevant

and valuable information.

Know What’s Trending

Content marketing can take on different styles and forms, based on the kind of

readers an enterprise wants to attract and convert into consumers.Some of the trending

content formats and styles include:

Infographics.

Information graphics or infographics are visual representations of data. Complex or

statistical information is presented in graphic form so that it is easier to understand and

digest. Charts and tables alongside descriptive text are examples of infographics.

Memes and shareable images.

Memes and other shareable images can be used to drive a point through wit and/or

humor. Although memes immediately grab a reader’s attention and don’t require much

graphic skill, they shouldn’t be used in excess as they are considered as having low value.





Link page.

A link page is simply a rundown of links to other websites that relate in some way to

your company, products or services. For obvious reasons it is probably better not to include

competitors on this list. Aside from spreading the love around, this also provides your site

with authoritative SEO signals, and asserts your position as a thought leader in your

industry.

Blog post.

A blog allows your audience into the inner workings of your mind, business and

industry. Usually written in a more conversational tone, posts are like journal entries that

are written to create more brand awareness.

Opinion posts.

Opinion posts are innately different from blog posts due to their tone. Ferociously

defending your position usually leads to your post getting more views and being shared

more.

Case study.

A case study provides information about what a business does, and how it has

specifically helped a particular client.





Podcasts.

Much like a radio talk show, podcasts are audio presentations online which revolve

around topics related to an enterprise’s business and industry. Users may subscribe to

podcasts, and these audio files can be streamed and downloaded.

Webinars.

An online event hosted by an organization broadcasted to a select group of users or

subscribers.

Interviews.

Not only do interviews enable you to gather unique information and generate more

traffic, being able to talk with an industry leader furthers your reputation as an authority in

your line of business and industry.

Research and Original Data.

People still have a lot of respect for businesses that put in the hard work and do their

own research. Being able to share your research and findings with your audience is a very

powerful way to generate traffic, assert your authority and build trust.





Guide.

Almost like an extremely long blog post, a guide is a very detailed piece of content

and requires careful writing, impressive graphics and an elaborative topic.

How-to articles.

The formula for these types of articles is pretty simple – point out a problem and

offer solutions. How-to posts can potentially reel in more traffic due to much-searched long

tail query introductions that usually begin with “How to” and “How do I/you”.

Reviews.

Whether reviewing a book, a restaurant or a product, readers are interested in what

you have to say about your experience – good, bad, so-so. Not only do reviews enable you

to have a say about something, it asserts you as an authority and gives you a chance to

interact and discuss with your audience.

Reviews also go the other way around, i.e. you may get in touch with relevant and

reputable bloggers to do a review on your product or service.





E-books

Usually packaged as a PDF, e-books are typically offered free as a download when

readers subscribe to a mailing list. Aside from being able to share what you know with

others, e-books allow you to further assert your position as a thought leader and authority.

Lists

Running down a list allows you to drive a point while making your content more

easily digestible and understandable to readers. Coming up with a list begins with thinking

of a valuable and relevant topic and then breaking it down into constituent parts.

Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is the process of generating interest and/or funding by soliciting

contributions or aid from a large group of people or online community.

Social Media platforms

Content can be created specifically for social networking sites such as Facebook,

Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram, etc. Social networking sites enables content to be

uploaded and shared at a much faster rate, especially if the content is relatable, valuable

and interesting.





Make the most of Social Media Platforms

If a person does not have a Facebook page, he has been living under a rock. Truly,

Facebook is its own country with neighbouring sites like Twitter, Instagram, Linked In,

Google, etc. We have certainly embraced the presence of the Social Media era and there is

no stopping it, so utilizing and taking advantage of Content Marketing, may be the wiser

thing to do. Marketers benefit from it because once the content is out; it will spread like

wildfire, especially if the content is at its best structure. Eventually, this will replicate and

bring forth a network of publicity coming from a main source.

In 2012, B2B Content Marketing Usage by Tactic shows that Articles (79%) beat Social

Media (other than blogs) by 5%. But in the succeeding report, Social Media (other than

blogs, 87%) beat Articles by 4%.i Virus indeed spreads faster.

In 2007, a student by the name of Steven C. Culp of The University of North Carolina

published a dissertation entitled “Advertising Amongst Ourselves: A qualitative study of

viewer attitudes towards viral marketing, wherein he conducted in-depth interviews to

College undergraduates and made use of these to explore content sharing particularly from

videos viewed on YouTube. There were 4 themes that were brought about by the study:

Filters in deciding whether or not to forward or share content are identified





Humor and personalization play a major part in the process of sharing content

Advertising considered as a form of entertainment

Content being new is a big aspect in the sharingii

However, not all viral content, written or advertorial, are good. It should boil down

ultimately to the quality, value and reliability. The company website, if in existence should

bear especially the key information to help create content that will be distributed through

social media, go for the biggest names at that and integrate – whatever you post on

Facebook will be published automatically in Twitter or Instagram or vice versa, ensuring

multiple publishing.

Referring to CMI’s 2013 B2B Content Marketing Research results, the use of Social

Media to distribute content in 2012 has increased by 13% compared to 2011.

B2B Marketers Using Social Media for Content

Distribution

2012

2011

87%

74% 2011

2012

65% 70% 75% 80% 85% 90% iii





Facebook, who may be the biggest gun at the moment, only ranked 3rd close of 2012

with LinkedIn on 1st pushing Twitter (first place in 2011) to 2nd place

iv

There are a lot more platforms being utilized for Content Marketing like SlideShare,

Vimeo, Flickr, Stumble Upon, Foursquare, Instagram but the above survey results show that

B2B Marketers make use of at least 5 platforms at an average. Pinterest, which is now

becoming a hub for all information pertaining to what people are interested in; here, they

can find ideas to guide them to execute any projects related to that particular interest i.e.

DIY home decors, Make-up tutorials, Hairstyle trends and pretty much everything under the

sun. In 2011, no marketers have expressed usage, let alone knowledge of Pinterest but in

2012, more than 25% of these marketers are using the application.

Social Media Sites Used for Content Distribution

LinkedIn

Twitter

Facebook

YouTube

Google+

Pinterest

71% 83%

80%

70%

74% 80%

56% 61%

2012

2011 13%

39%

0% 26%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%





Video.

When done properly, a two to three minute office tour video, company mission

video or an explainer video can help relay your message in a very succinct and persuasive

way. One thing to note about videos is that if you want them professionally executed, they

can be expensive.

More than a billion users watch YouTube videos every month. A hundred hours-

worth of videos are uploaded every minute, with 80 percent of generated traffic coming

from outside the United States. CISCO forecasts in their Visual Networking Index (VNI) that

videos will account for 69 percent of all internet user traffic by 2017.

Create your own Videos

Now more than ever, videos have become the most interesting form of content

media as it greatly appeals to the interest of users with its rich format combining audio,

visual, motions and creativity. Any content can be transformed into a worthy video that can

be uploaded into YouTube, which is now considered to be the second most popular search

enginev





76% of B2B marketers are using videos for their content marketing according to

CMI’s 2015 Benchmark, Budgets and Trends – North Americavi. But there are still

organizations out there that have yet to consider this into action. Most of them are afraid

to even attempt because they may not be or have people who are knowledgeable in the

technical aspects of making a quality content video, let alone just creating any video. The

best thing about our world today is that information is limitless. There are hundreds and

thousands of resources available to aide us in pursuing projects such as video content

marketing. If budget is not available to create professional and powerful videos in YouTube,

research and self-help play a big part and here are some options that can help in creating

engaging and interesting videos anyway. These are DIY tools in creating videos from scratch

with helpful templates and tutorials.

Wideo (http://wideo.co/)

Stupeflix (https://studio.stupeflix.com/en/)

Wistia (http://wistia.com/)

Screenr (https://www.screenr.com/)



http://wideo.co/

https://studio.stupeflix.com/en/

http://wistia.com/

https://www.screenr.com/



Know What Works

The following are examples of content marketing strategies done the right way:

American Express: OPEN Forum





Since financial matters can sometimes seem daunting and complex, American

Express included a discussion space called “OPEN Forum” to their website so that business

owners can freely learn and inquire about customer service, leadership, marketing,

technology and financial issues.

While the said forum allows American Express a platform to interact with their

readers and clients, it also asserts the financial institution’s position as a true partner of

business owners.

Intelligentsia Coffee: Brew Guides





Alongside step-by-step instructions on how to brew different kinds of coffee

varieties with various coffee-making tools, Intelligentsia’s Brew Guides features eye-

catching photos and graphics. The guides are free, and furthers the brand as a thought

leader and authority on anything coffee.





Good Greens: Product Reviews by Local Bloggers

In 2011, while Keith Pabley was working with a physician to help him improve his

dwindling practice. Pabley discovered that the health bars the physician was recommending

tasted awful, but there weren’t any other health bars in the market at the time that were

palatable. To satisfy this gap in the market, Pabley created Good Greens bars – dairy-free,

gluten-free, all-natural health bars which contained 40 antioxidants and 3 probiotics.





Since Good Greens was a new and small business at that time, Pabley didn’t have

enough funding to go down the traditional marketing route. Instead, he fostered

relationships with local bloggers so that they would review and mention his products.Good

Greens bars are now available in more than 1,200 stores.

Magnolia: Buyer’s Guide Place Mini Magazine

A small, family-owned photography store called Magnolia opened in 1954, which

later on started selling other electronic products. Since the business didn’t have enough

capital to fund a television commercial or print ad, marketer Roger Parker helped the

struggling business by launching the “Buyer’s Guide Place”.

The said mini-magazine revolved around educating shoppers about electronics,

taking on topics such as what to look for when buying electronics, how to buy them and

what to avoid.The company managed to maintain sales for decades, and within a few years,





expanded throughout Oregon, California and Washington. A few years later, Best Buy

bought the company for $87 million.

Metro Trains: Dumb Ways to Die Video

Australian transportation company, Metro Trains, launched a content marketing

campaign to promote rail safety. While most safety campaigns can be too technical, dull and

boring, Metro Trains approved a campaign that would get people’s attention. And grab

people’s attention they did with their “Dumb Ways to Die” viral videos.





The said marketing campaign was so successful that around 1 million youths pledged

to practice safety around trains, and accidents and deaths were reduced by 21 percent.

Sharpie: User-Generated Content

The beauty of user-generated content is that it not only makes for the distribution of

tasks and the creation of free content, it allows users and enterprises to interact.





Apparently, there are lots to post about pens and Sharpie has managed to create interest

around their everyday, simply straightforward product lines.

From coloring in plain sandals to decorating shirts and jeans with patriotic symbols,

the Sharpie blog allows users to comment and add in their ideas about what to do and how

to be creative with Sharpie pens.Not only does the post create social media buzz, the

content encourages people to purchase and use their products.

The White House: Behind-the-Scenes Gallery

Politics is a hybrid of serious governance and apparent silliness – at least that’s what

the leader of the free world wants the United States and the rest of the world to think.





The White House photo gallery allows people a behind-the-scene glimpse into what

the President and First Lady have been doing the past year. Not only is politics about serious

issues, the photo gallery shows the world the fun and funny side of the First Couple not

oftentimes seen during press conferences.

The photos are aimed at humanizing the First Couple, and making them more

relatable as people, rather than just political figures.

Conclusion

Ultimately, content marketing is about creating a dynamic relationship between

enterprise and consumer. Long gone are the days that the consumer merely consumes.

Today’s consumer is empowered – seeking valuable and relevant information before making

a decision to choose or behave differently.Enterprises, despite being separate legal entities,

are now only effective if consumers deem them as valuable, relatable and ironically, human.

The value of content marketing is that it helps consumers to know a brand, a service

or a product better. A mere glimpse is not enough. It helps with the buying decision, it helps

to build relationships, it helps because people are often too busy to do anything other than

search online. Content marketing enablesenterprises to promote their businesses, while





allowing the consistently hungry consumer to devour valuable and highly relevant

information.

Whether they know it or not all organizations are engaged in content marketing. The

problem is that many still do not realize it and are allowing other more disciplined, prolific

organizations to fill the available space with their content and take away their customers.

The time to start content marketing is here and now. Set your goals, decide upon your

outlets and your schedule and start writing.





About Peppersack

Peppersack provides digital marketing services to small and medium sized businesses.

Our philosophy is to deliver more expertise at a lower cost by reducing our cost base

and spend in the UK and sourcing talent on a project by project basis on the global

market.

Contact Peppersack

We would be pleased to hear about your ecommerce project or online marketing

requirements.

[email protected]

Telephone 0161 926 3670

Atlantic Business Centre

Atlantic Street

Manchester

WA14 5NQ

United Kingdom

www.peppersack.com








References

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http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/b2bresearch2013cmi-

121023151728-phpapp01-1.pdf. Accessed 16 December 2014.

iiAvailable from http://search.proquest.com/docview/304830519.Accessed 16 December

2014.

iiiContent Marketing Institute website. 2013. Available from



ivContent Marketing Institute website. 2013. Available from



vForbes. 2014. Available from http://www.forbes.com/sites/drewhendricks/2014/10/16/6-

tools-to-jump-start-your-video-content-marketing/. Accessed 20 December 2014.

viYouTube Press.Available from https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html.Accessed

20 December 2014.



http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/b2bresearch2013cmi-121023151728-phpapp01-1.pdf



http://search.proquest.com/docview/304830519




http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/b2bresearch2013cmi-121023151728-phpapp01-1.pdf.%20Accessed%2018%20December%202014



http://www.forbes.com/sites/drewhendricks/2014/10/16/6-tools-to-jump-start-your-video-content-marketing/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/drewhendricks/2014/10/16/6-tools-to-jump-start-your-video-content-marketing/

https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html

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